Popular recreational sporting activities, such as biking or skiing, often require equipment which must be transported with the user but which cannot easily be stored within automotive vehicles. Accordingly, various vehicle racks which accommodate bicycles and other such large recreational sporting equipment are generally well known. One such type of vehicle-mountable rack is commonly known as a hitch rack, in which the rack assembly is mountable to a rear hitch-mount of the vehicle. This type of rack is often used for bicycles, such that one or more transversely mounted bicycles can be carried adjacent the rear of the vehicle.
While such hitch-mounted racks are known, there exists drawbacks with the use of this type of rack assembly. When the rack is installed on the hitch-mount at the rear of the vehicle, the vertically extending rack and the equipment carried thereon can impede access to the rear of the vehicle. Accordingly, many attempts have been made to provide a rear-mounted vehicle hitch rack which can be tilted away from the vehicle, such that the user can more easily gain access to the rear of the vehicle. However, the known release mechanisms used to permit this displacement of the upstanding rack portion are generally inconvenient or difficult to use. For example, it is known to employ a removable pin at the base of the rack, to retain the upstanding rack portion fixed relative to the hitch-mount engaging portion of the rack. When the pin is removed, the upstanding rack portion may be swung away from the rear of the vehicle. This type of release mechanism is disadvantageous as the user must bend down to gain access to the pin, and replacement of the pin can be difficult. Further, loss of the pin remains possible, which renders the rack ineffective. The pin can also be difficult to re-engage when the rack is loaded with the weight of the bicycles or other recreational equipment.
While foot-operated release mechanisms for rear-mounted vehicle racks are known, such as disclosed by Van Dusen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,449,101 and 5,489,110 issued Sep. 12, 1995 and Feb. 6, 1996 respectively, they can be difficult to easily operate, often requiring the user to operate a small lever on the rack latch with one foot, maintain balance with the other foot, and control the downward movement of the rack and its contents with both free hands. As the rack can be used to carry several objects which may represent a significant total weight, the known foot-operated rack release mechanisms require considerable skill and strength to operate. Further, the stops provided to limit downward travel of the rack tend to bend the rack support arm if a loaded rack is released from the vertical transportation position without being restrained and guided downwardly by the user.
Further disadvantages also exist with rear-mounted vehicle hitch racks. These racks generally have an object carrying arm which rearwardly extends from the vertical support post of the upstanding rack portion. In order to be able to accommodate several objects, such as several bicycles for example, this rearwardly projecting arm of the rack can protrude needlessly a considerable distance out from the rear of the vehicle when the rack is not being used to carry objects. As most hitch racks are rigid assemblies, the rearwardly projecting portion always extends its full length out from the vehicle. Some hitch-mounted racks do permit the rearwardly projecting arms to pivot downwards, in a plane generally parallel to a longitudinal axis of the vertical support post of the upstanding rack portion, in order to solve this problem. However, this solution limits the type and number of attachments which can be used on the rearwardly projecting arms which carry the recreational equipment, thereby limiting the variety of carrying configurations possible.
Additionally, rear hitch-mounted racks also present difficulties when used to carry bicycles. The rearwarly projecting arm of this type of rack is usually configured to receive and engage the top tube of a bicycle. Typically, straps or clamps of some sort are used to fasten the bicycle top tube onto the rack. However, an insufficiently secure clamping mechanism can cause normal operation of the vehicle to result in misalignment or swaying of the bicycles on the rack. To prevent this, it is known to employ a rotational anti-sway arm, which engages another tube of the bicycle frame in order to limit unwanted movement of the bicycle on the rack during vehicle movement. U.S. Pat. No. 6,431,423 issued Aug. 13, 2002 to Allen et al., for example, discloses such a rotational anti-sway arm which is pivotable about the rearwardly extending bicycle support arm. While such a pivoting anti-sway arm does reduce unwanted movement of the bicycles carried by the rack, the rotational movement of the anti-sway stabilizing arm can interfere with many bicycle frame configurations.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a hitch-mounted vehicle rack which addresses the above-noted deficiencies of known hitch-mounted vehicle racks.